Publications by authors named "V Alfano"

Most recent accounts highlight the importance of two aspects of cognition in the implicit understanding of the physical world: semantic knowledge (the ability to recognize, categorize, and relate concepts) and mechanical knowledge (the capability to comprehend how things mechanically work). However, how the human brain may integrate these cognitive processes remains largely unexplored. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate this integration employing a novel free-viewing task.

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This study explores the dynamic of emergency department (ED) access during heat waves. Given the importance of avoiding overcrowding and long waits in an ED, it is important to explore all the possible determinants of ED inflows. We shed some light on the impact that heat waves have on this dynamic, via a quantitative analysis of the number of ED visits in the Campania region of Italy during the summers between 2016 and 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • Adenosine acts as a natural anticonvulsant through adenosine receptors (AR), but developing drugs that target these receptors has been challenging due to potential cardiac side effects.
  • The study examined the effects of a selective AR agonist called MRS5474 on excitatory and inhibitory signals in the hippocampus, using both rodent and human tissue samples.
  • Results showed that MRS5474 does not affect normal excitatory signals but enhances GABAergic currents in tissue from patients with epilepsy, suggesting its potential as a targeted antiseizure medication through activation of AR in epileptic conditions.
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This study explores the interplay between executive functions and body weight, examining both the influence of biological factors, specifically sex, and methodological issues, such as the choice between Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) as the primary anthropometric measure. A total of 386 participants (222 females, mean age = 45.98 years, SD = 17.

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Among the most prevalent neurological disorders, epilepsy affects about 1% of the population worldwide. We previously found, using human epileptic tissues, that GABAergic neurotransmission impairment is a key mechanism that drives the pathological phenomena that ultimately lead to generation and recurrence of seizures. Using both a "microtransplantation technique" and synaptosomes preparations from drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsies (TLEs), we used the technique of two-electrode voltage clamp to record GABA-evoked currents, focusing selectively on the synaptic "fast inhibition" mediated by low-affinity GABA receptors.

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